[wavewave]

Hello everybody ,
I would share with you a quite succesful experiment I have done on some cheap silicone straps in order to reduce their natural propension to be a magnet for dust and lint.
The story begings when I purchased a cheap silicone BONETTO style staraps for my watches, I have always liked the simple design of Bonetto 317 but I have not already founded a genuine one in my local store so I decided to try with 8$ to have a visual test on my wrist...The test confirmed that I will soon buy one of that Bonetto Italian rubber since the bold design convinced me!
The bad side was that silicone is impossible to bend or form even using a flame but first of all silicone attracts each fiber or dust particles around you and the result is a dirt straps even a second after a proper cleaning.
I read somewhere that the main reason is static electricity of the material and a way to reduce it could be using some chemicals during the production process or using some cover material that works against that property.
The static issue is present in many cases of our daily life one of this is related the cloth/fabrics conditioning and driing so i decided to try and apply some fabric conditioner on the strap and the result was quite a step ahead.
Hereinafter the test phases, one of my abandoned silicon strap before cleaning:

and after cleaning...some dust is already present:

Here the buckle side after was near a carpet; the other part was left, safe from dust, on the table:

Here appling the fabric conditioner (Argan Vanilla scent...not bad as a side effect):

I apply concentrate conditioner as is and wait till it dries, it was applied only on the external face and on the sides of the strap in order to avoid the direct contact with the skin...I think is better since at the end its chemical composition is for sure not an healty thing.

Here one part treated and the other only cleaned with hands soap:

Applied on both parts except of the loops strap and then final test: open the cotton wipes and all the fibers flies on the surfaces...
Loops completely covered of dust, strap quite clean!
IT WORKS

Here the Bonetto style strap that made me start the experiment:

Thanks to all those who had the patience to read up here and sorry for my English.
Ciao

 

[arcadelt]

It works!...How I managed Lint&Dust on silicone straps

Here appling the fabric conditioner (Argan Vanilla scent...not bad as a side effect)

Thanks to all those who had the patience to read up here and sorry for my English.

Thank you for your experiment and report. Your English is very good, but products are often known by different names in different countries. Is the "fabric condition" what might be called "fabric softener" in some places, a liquid that goes into the final rinse cycle in a clothes washing machine?

 

[wavewave]

Here appling the fabric conditioner (Argan Vanilla scent...not bad as a side effect)

Thanks to all those who had the patience to read up here and sorry for my English.

Thank you for your experiment and report. Your English is very good, but products are often known by different names in different countries. Is the "fabric condition" what might be called "fabric softener" in some places, a liquid that goes into the final rinse cycle in a clothes washing machine?

Thank you arcadelt,
Yes I mean clothes/fabric softener, the one normally used in the washing machine; the chemical composition of that products is studied to soften and reduce the static electricity effect on clothes.

 

[whoischich]

Interesting... I need to try this. I have a bunch of great straps sitting unused because they're dust magnets. I wonder though, how permanent is the solution? If you wash your hands and the strap gets wet, does it wash off and become useless again?

 

[bobski]

Interesting... I need to try this. I have a bunch of great straps sitting unused because they're dust magnets. I wonder though, how permanent is the solution? If you wash your hands and the strap gets wet, does it wash off and become useless again?

I'd be very interested to know this too. Great post OP (con ottimo inglese!) and something I've never heard of.

 

[wtma]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time writing it down.
I'll try this with a couple my silicone straps, which already collected some dust and lints.

 

[Sennelier]

Bump! Curious to hear if the fabric softener treatment is permanent, or if you have to keep repeating the process?

 

[Porky4774]

Ive never tried this but always thought some armor-all tire shine or dashboard protection would work pretty good

 

[WatchObsession]

Thanks for sharing the results of your test, interesting and worth trying